Spurs in America

Friday was a busy day in San Jose as the lads trained, met another 49er and got out into the community.

Friday was a busy day in San Jose as the lads trained, met another 49er and got out into the community.

Training came first and this was a football-based session ahead of Saturday's friendly match against San Jose Earthquakes.

After the regular warm-up routine, the lads went through a crossing and finishing session before Harry Redknapp orchestrated a team shape drill.

The goalkeepers were also being put through their paces with coach Tony Parks delighted with his group.

We enjoyed another visit from San Francisco 49ers NFL team with kicker Joe Nedney taking a real interest in the training session before what turned into a kicking clinic with Clive Allen - who of course used to be a kicker for the London Monarchs in NFL Europe - and goalkeepers David Button and Oscar Jansson.

Clive showed he'd lost none of the old magic by drilling an American Football over the posts - not bad considering he admitted that he hadn't kicked the oval ball for 10 years!

Joe showed David and Oscar the techniques of kicking field goals and kicking off in NFL before showing the pair the style used for punters to kick the ball upfield.

The goalkeepers then showed Joe how they took goal kicks - and the big man responded with an amazing goal kick that travelled from the six-yard box to the opposition penalty area!

Both parties enjoyed the session - we'll have a separate story on this soon.

After training, Niko Kranjcar, Luka Modric, Jermaine Jenas and Kyle Naughton went out into the community alongside players from our club partners San Jose Earthquakes.

Niko and Luka were joined by Justin Morrow and Jason Hernandez and paid visits to two Kidango projects at the Arbuckle Children's Centre and Linda Vista Children Development Centre.

Meanwhile, JJ and Kyle hooked up with Chris Leitch and Chris Wondolowski at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at nearby Palo Alto.

The busy day continued as midfield maestro and club ambassador Ossie Ardiles met fans from the San Francisco Bay Area Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Club at a busy Danny Coyle's pub in San Francisco.

Ossie proved a real hit with the fans who travelled to San Francisco from New York, Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles and Canada.

He answered a host of questions from just about everyone in the bar for the first hour of the visit before signing autographs and plenty of retro Spurs shirts - including the 1978 shirt he wore on his arrival at the Lane - and posing for photographs with everyone present.

We presented the SF club with a new, signed shirt and our picture above shows Osse with Steve Pritchard, SF Spurs President and Steffen Chirazi, SF Spurs Chairman.